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COURSE WORK


M016
GLOBAL INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCE






STUDENT: TRANG PHAN QUYNH NGUYEN


ID: 5298059
























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TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY........................................................................................................... 3
2. INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................... 4
3. COMPANY PROFILE ................................................................................................................. 4
3.1 Virgin Group Virgin Media ................................................................................................ 4
3.2 FPT Telecom.......................................................................................................................... 5
4. KEY ECONOMIC FACTORS IN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS ....................................... 5
4.1 Vietnam Country Profile........................................................................................................ 5
4.2 PESTEL Analysis ................................................................................................................... 5
5. HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT STRATEGY ............................................................ 8
5.1 Recruitment and Selection ..................................................................................................... 8
a. Recruitment ............................................................................................................................. 8
b. Selection .................................................................................................................................. 9
5.2 Training, Development and Talent management ............................................................... 10
a. Training and Development Process ...................................................................................... 10
b. Talent management ............................................................................................................... 11
5.3 Performance Management and Appraisal system.............................................................. 11
5.4 Reward System Strategy....................................................................................................... 12
5.5 Employee Engagement......................................................................................................... 13
6. HRM ISSUES OF VIRGIN FOR JOINT VENTURE ............................................................. 13
6.1 Organisational I ssue and the Role of Expatriates .............................................................. 13
6.2 Culture I ssue Hofstede framework ................................................................................... 13
7. CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................... 14
8. RECOMMENDATIONS ............................................................................................................ 14
LI ST OF REFERENCES: ................................................................................................................... 14








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1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This report presents Human Resource Management functions in the Joint Venture of
Virgin Media (UK) and FPT Telecom (Vietnam) when Virgin Media decides to expand
its business to Vietnam. A PESTEL Analysis provides the information about the key
economic drivers in Vietnam which helps Virgin to have a brief snapshot about the
situation of Vietnam market at the moment. Also, this report presents the Strategy of
Human Resource Management in the Joint Venture, how to recruit, select, training and
develop the employees in the Joint Venture in an efficient way, using ASK Model,
Rogers seven point plan, 360 degree feedback and Hofstede framework . Besides, this
report also mentions the issues which Virgin Media may have to face when entering to
Vietnam market which are the effective working of a diverse team and employee ability
of adaptation in the new culture. There are also some recommendations for this situation
which are more focusing on the quality of recruitment and selection process and provide
more training programmes for employees in the host country so that they can understand
the organisational culture and work more efficiently in the future.
















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2. INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, with the globalisation, there are more and more companies try to expand
their business outside of its parent country to find more developing opportunities in
the new market. Despite of the tough economic climate in the last five years, the
development of technology, social media and entertainment is still increasing steadily
in all over the world (Kemp, 2012). On the other hand, Vietnam is a developing
country which has been considered as one of the most attractive foreign investment
destinations in the world (VOV, 2014) and the technology sector in the country has
also developed significantly in the recent years (The World Bank, 2013). Therefore, it
can be said that now is the right time for Virgin Group - the leading entertainment and
telecommunication company in the United Kingdom to invest in Vietnam. This report
focuses on Human Resource Management function for the Joint Venture of Virgin
Media and FPT Telecom (The telecommunication company in Vietnam) when Virgin
Media starts to enter in Vietnam telecommunication market. It provides the analysis
of key economic factors in Vietnam and Human Resource Management Strategies in
Recruiting, Selection, Training, Development and Reward to help the Joint Venture
operating efficiently in Vietnam market.
3. COMPANY PROFILE
3.1 Virgin Group Virgin Media
Virgin Group is one of the greatest entertainment and telecommunications
companies in the United Kingdom that has been founded by Sir Richard Branson.
Starting with the first small mail order record company - Virgin Record Stores
opened in 1971, Virgin has developed successfully their business with a wide
range of sectors which are travelling, financial services, leisure, and holidays and
so on (Virgin, 2014).

Figure 1: Business Sectors of Virgin Group

Nowadays, there are more than 50,000 employees who are working from Virgin
from over 50 nations in all over the world. Global branded revenue was 15bn in
2012 (Virgin, 2014).

Virgin media is one of the largest business companies of Virgin Group. The vision
of the company is to make good things happen for people, communities and
business with three key strategies:

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- Taking responsibility for the biggest issues
and where the company needs to improve.
- Inspiring good ideas about what make things
better for peoples lives.
- Listening and learning from people around.
(Virgin Media, 2014)


3.2 FPT Telecom
FPT Telecom is a Vietnamese telecommunication company which provides
products and services related to internet, mobile phone and technology. (FPT
Telecom, 20014)
4. KEY ECONOMIC FACTORS IN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
4.1 Vietnam Country Profile
After the wars against colonial power France and the United States in 1975,
nowadays, Vietnam is a one-party Communist state which is considered as one of
south-east Asia's most dynamic economies and has targeted to become a
developed country by 2020 (BBC, 2013). In addition, according to BBC, although
there are millions of Vietnamese people who are still relying on agriculture,
Vietnam is also developing rapidly in manufacturing, information technology and
oil production.

After 12 years of negotiation, Vietnam has joined the World Trade Organisation
since 2007. Foreign investment in Vietnam has been growing steadily with the US
being one of the main trading partners (BBC, 2013). Also, Vietnam is considered
as an attractive investment destination which attracted approximately $22billion in
foreign investment in 2013 (VOV, 2014); for example, Samsung shifted its plant
from China to Vietnam, has won the license to invest $1.2bn; LG Electronics also
said that the company will spend more than $1.5 billion in the next period of 10
years to expand its production of household appliances and electronics products in
Vietnam (Vu, 2013) .
4.2 PESTEL Analysis
A PESTEL Analysis of the telecommunication and technology sector in Vietnam
will present the external environmental factors which may influence Virgins
operations when the company enter to Vietnam market.
a. Political
Vietnam is a socialist country which operates under the leadership of the
Communist Party (PwC, 2008). Political stability is an advantage and one of
the essential factors that have helped Vietnam to achieve its economic
development policy (Delalande, 2010). However, in the recent years, due to
the impressive growing economy, the wealth gap is increasing that may affect
negatively to the stability of Vietnams Politics (Vaughan, 2014).
Taxation policy in Vietnam is quite stable. The standard rate of corporate
income tax for foreign investors is 25% (Allens, 2012)
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b. Economic
Despite of this current tough economic globally, Vietnam still achieved a
positive economic number with 5.42 per cent increasing of GDP in 2014
(Barbour-Lacey, 2013). In addition, Vietnam has recently announced that
Vietnam will allow foreign investors to hold a larger amount in domestic
financial institutions as a solution for speeding up the restructuring of the bank
system and the improvement of the bad debt (Barbour-Lacey, 2013).
According to The World Bank (2013), Vietnam has gained some economic
achievements which are:
- A stable macroeconomic situations with the moderate inflation of 6.7% in
June 2013 and the significant increase of foreign reserves from 2.2 months to
2.8 months in 2012 and 2013 respectively.
- Strong external balances: Foreign invested sector accounted for 66% of
Vietnam total exports and increased by 25% from 2012 to 2013. Cellphones,
computer and electronic appliances accounted for more than 50% of total
export.
-
Figure 2: Vietnam has rapidly cut its trade deficit and now run a surplus
(Zhang, 2014)

In addition, international investors are attracted to Vietnams low-cost labour
pool and large domestic market (Wang, 2014). Therefore, this time could be
the right time for Virgin to expand its business to Vietnam due to many
benefits which the country can bring to the company.
c. Social
Vietnams current population is around 92 million people and Vietnam has
been the 13
th
most populous country in the world (World Population Review,
2014). People who are from 15-24 years old account for 18.4% and those who
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are from 25-54 years old account for 44.4%. That means more than 50%
Vietnamese people are in working ages (Index Mundi, 2013).

Figure 3: Vietnam Population Chart (World Population Review, 2014)
d. Technological
For recent decade, Vietnams technology has been developing rapidly.
Nowadays, Vietnam has been ranked in top 20 countries of internet uses
(Vietnam News 2012). Also, there have been more than 21% of mobilephone
users using smartphones and it has been estimated that the number of
smartphone users would increase by 5% in the period of 2012-2016 (Vietnam
News, 2012).

Moreover, the number of people using social network has also been increasing
rapidly. There was only 2.9 million Facebook users in 2011 and it grew to
more than 8.5 users in 2012 (Kemp, 2012).

Figure 4: Social Network Users in Asia (Kemp, 2012)
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e. Environmental
In the recent years, Vietnam has witnessed a dramatic economic development
associated with industrialization, urbanization which has created an increase in
exploitation of natural resources, chemical contamination and significant
pressures for the environment. Viet Nam is considered as one of the countries
which have been affected significantly by climate change which causes natural
disasters, floods and droughts and so on, makes a huge loss of human and
material resources (The World Bank, 2011)..
f. Legal
In order to attract and facilitate foreign investors and to support the progress of
modernisation and industrialisation as well as the development of the
economy, Vietnam Government has provided a Law in Foreign Invest in
Vietnam which gives provisions and instruction for foreign investors in
Vietnam (Vietnam National Assembly, 2000);
However, there are some limitations for some conditional business sectors, in
which, there are telecommunication, broadcasting and television that are the
sectors which Virgin aims to invest in Vietnam. Therefore, before entering to
Vietnam Market, the company has to ask for permission and approval from the
Prime Minister (Allens, 2012).
Based on the PESTEL Analysis above, Virgin Media has lots of advantages if
the company enters into Vietnam market at the moment. Although there are
some difficulties with legal problem, Virgin still has good opportunity to enter
in Vietnam due to the needs of foreign investment of Vietnam market at the
moment. Based on the research, pursuing a joint venture in Vietnam market
would be a right decision for Virgin media to expand its business globally.

5. HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT STRATEGY
5.1 Recruitment and Selection
a. Recruitment
Recruitment is the process of carrying out both practices and activities of the
organisation with the aim of attract and identify the potential employees
(Torrington et al, 2011). While recruiting people for the international
company, it is very important to the HR managers to define and recognise the
globally competitive abilities of the applicants. Therefore, the global HR
managers in Virgin Media need to know and understand four specific
approaches which can apply for recruiting employees for an international joint
venture. The four approaches are ethnocentric, polycentric, regiocentric and
geocentric (CULC, 2014).
- Ethnocentric Approach: All the employees would be recruited from the UK
and appointed to work in Vietnam by Virgin Media UK.
- Polycentric Approach: the employees would be recruited from Vietnam to
work in Vietnam according to the vision and strategies of Virgin Media.
- Regiocentric Approach: The managers for the joint venture would be chosen
from many other countries.
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- Geocentric Approach: Employees will be both international and local.

Based on the situation and target of Virgin to expand the company by
collaborating with FPT Telecom, polycentric can be seen as the most
appropriate approach for Virgin Media to recruit new local employees who
can understand clearly Vietnam market and help Virgin Media to limit culture
shocks and deal with culture differences and problems in the new market.
According to the business of providing the products and services related to
mobile, phone, television and so on, there are the key positions and roles
which need to be considered for the recruitment process, that are:
- IT Engineers
- Marketers
- Accountants
- Customer services
- Sales assistants
- Cashiers
- Financial Department
- HR Manager

The information about the recruitment for the joint venture of Virgin Media
and FPT Telecom would be published via social media, FPT official website,
corporate website and advertisements.

Also, there are various methods of recruitments which Virgin Media and FPT
Telecom can apply for their joint venture such as: corporate website,
recruitment agencies, Job Centre plus, Apprenticeships and so on. In addition,
Virgin Media should continue its apprenticeship program in Vietnam market
due to the experience from the success of the apprenticeship program in
Vietnam.

The recruitment could also be internal recruitment from FPT Telecoms.

b. Selection
Selection is the process of the combination of all necessary information about
the applicants to make decisions for the recruitment. This process is one of the
most important processes which may decide the success of the joint venture
due to the human resources.

The selection process will be followed by the following steps:
- Applications: candidates provide a completed application forms including CV,
cover letter expressing the positions which they are interested in.
- Initial review: The applications will be reviewed by HR Managers
- Tests: to know the knowledge and abilities of the candidates
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- Face to face interview: After the candidates are selected from the three rounds
above, the candidates will have an online interview with the human resources
managers or the professionals working in the sectors of recruitments.
- Assessment: the HR managers and other professional will base on the result
from recruitment process and selection process to choose the best and most
appropriate candidates for each positions of the joint venture.

To be more exact and efficient, the selection process may refer to the use of
Rogers seven point plan (1952) as follow:


According to the Rogers plan, there are lots of attitudes and characteristics
to consider to make decisions whether the joint venture think that persons or
not. The plan presented a very clear picture about the intended recruits for
selection process.
5.2 Training, Development and Talent management
a. Training and Development Process
Training and Development are the processes which always have the positive
impact on the performance of employees, both individuals and team working.
By doing training and development programmes, human resource managers
can get to know their employees, encourage and empower them to work
efficiently following the requirements and organisational culture of Virgin and
FPT Telecom.

The training model - ASK can be used to provide a clear purpose of the
training process:
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(CULC, 2014)

Because Vietnam is still a developing country, the Vietnamese workforce also
does not have lots of experience and skills to deal with the international
business problems. In addition, the working attitude is not really professional.
Therefore, the training programs which provide the employees the necessary
skills and knowledge will be very useful for the employees to develop
themselves and be more effective when working for the joint venture.
There are some methods can be applied for the training programmes which the
joint venture provides for the new employees such as making behaviour
modelling to help the employees recognise the culture and working attitude of
people in the organisations. It also could be discussion and presentation about
the culture cross or expatriate which can help the employees to gain more
knowledge and skills about the differences between Vietnam and UK; then
they can change themselves to be more fit with the operations and culture of
Virgin Media. On the job training is also a very efficient way to help the
employees become more confident thanks to the detailed directions from their
current colleagues.
After training process, the company will provides the opportunities for the
employees to apply what they have learnt in the training program.
b. Talent management
The recent times, talent management (TM) has rapidly become a key strategic
management activity for organisations (CULC, 2014). Based on the training
and development process, HR managers will need to make an analysis to
identify and develop a talent group of high potential and high performing
employees. Moreover, HR managers also need to find what position is
matched with each employee to improve the operation of the joint venture.
5.3 Performance Management and Appraisal system
Performance appraisal system provided a formalised process to review the
performance of employees. HR function will design and provide the criteria
which will be used to examine and assess the performance of the employees.
According to that, line manager has to appraise the work of their subordinates.

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It can be seen that the process of performance appraisal is a cycle moving
continuously to improve the operations of the joint venture.

In addition, 360 degree feedback can be
used to appraise the performance of the
employees (Torrington et al, 2011). HR
function will design a questionnaire for
the employees to get feedbacks from
each other and make plan to implement,
to develop themselves.



After that, all employees are expected to make a portfolio of evidence of their
performance over the period, how they have developed themselves based on
the feedbacks they have got.
5.4 Reward System Strategy
Reward System is the strategy used to motivate and encourage employees for
maximising potentials. Reward management plays a vital role to maintain the
stability of the organisations to achieve and share common goals.



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(CULC, 2014)

Forms of reward are not only monetary but also the promotion and
development.
In reference to Torrington (2011), there are four strategies to pay which are
payment by result, Performance related pay, Skill-based pay and Profit
sharing.

In the case of the joint venture of Virgin Media and FPT Telecom,
performance related pay is the most appropriate method of payment at the
moment, because the joint venture has just entered Vietnam market and it is
quite difficult for them to gain the expected profit. There will be some risks;
therefore, performance related pay may help to keep the employees working
for a long time in the future. Another method of reward is promotion and
development. That means the employees working in this joint venture will
have opportunity to be promoted if they have a good performance in the
working period.

5.5 Employee Engagement
Employee engagement has both attitudinal and behavioural components which
brings the argument that the involvement of employees creates workers who are
interested in their roles and responsibilities and can perform at a higher level
(Torrington, 2011).
There are some recommendations for Joint Venture between Virgin Media and
FPT Telecoms to achieve the engagement of its employees. Firstly, the company
should let the employees know that they believe that their employees contribution
would make the company develop in the future. Secondly, the company could
create some programmes which encourage the employees give their opinions and
ideas of how they think to improve the work of the company.

6. HRM ISSUES OF VIRGIN FOR JOINT VENTURE
6.1 Organisational I ssue and the Role of Expatriates
With the focus on polycentric approach, most of employees working in the Joint
Venture are Vietnamese. This may cause the misunderstanding of the original
vision and strategies of Virgin when the company enters into Vietnam market.
Also, Vietnamese local people working together may create a working
environment which is totally different with the organisational culture of Virgin
and that may lead to the conflict with the expatriates who are working in the host
country Vietnam. In this situation, the role of expatriates is to direct and manage
the Joint Venture operating according to the visions and strategy of the company,
as well as adjust some activities to be more appropriate with the attitudes and
characteristics of local people in the host country.

6.2 Culture I ssue Hofstede framework
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According to Hofstede framework, it can be seen that there are large gaps of
power distance, individualism and indulgence between the United Kingdom and
Vietnam. In Vietnam, the high power distance means that Vietnamese people are
influenced by the positions people held while in the UK, there is a belief that
everyone should be treated equally. Vietnamese people prefer to have high
positions in the organisations. Besides, Vietnams individualism is much lower
than Britains. This means that Vietnamese people focus on group working and
the common goal while British people are likely to express themselves. It may
cause some problems when the expatriates from Virgin Media have to work
together with Vietnamese people.

7. CONCLUSION
In conclusion, this time is the right time to Virgin Media to expand their business to
Vietnam according to the PESTEL Analysis above. With the clear and strategic
human resource management strategy, the Joint Venture can absolutely attract, recruit
and encourage the employees to work and contribute for the company. However, there
are still some issues related to the differences in culture which the two companies
have to face which are team working contribution, the adaptation of the expatriates to
the working culture in Vietnam and the fair problems among the local employees in
the Joint Venture.
8. RECOMMENDATIONS
There are some recommendations can be made for the Joint Venture of Virgin Media
and FPT Telecom. Firstly, the HR managers of Virgin Media should create more
programmes which introduce and deliver the value of organisational culture of Virgin
to Vietnamese local employees so the Vietnamese employees can understand the
importance of organisational culture and adjust themselves to be more appropriate and
efficient in the future. Also, during the recruitment and selection process, HR
managers should concentrate on recruiting and selecting the people who have an
adaptable ability so that they can easily get to know the new organisational culture in
a global joint venture.

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